The present invention relates to computer controlled graphical user interfaces and particularly to ease of use interactive computer controlled display interfaces for tracking a sequence of data processor controlled events, such as tracking a sequence of Web documents received over the World Wide Web (Web) or Internet. More particularly, the invention relates to the tracking of received and cached Web documents or pages at a receiving display station through the graphical interface.
The 1990""s decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies which have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communications distribution channels and the Web or Internet (terms are used interchangeably), which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached xe2x80x9ccritical massxe2x80x9d and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of Web documents, including media and computer programs. Web pages are now extensively used for commercial, academic and entertainment purposes.
In addition, because of the vast amount of information potentially available through networks such as the Internet, it is important that the presentation of the pages of a transmitted document be presented as quickly as possible on the display screen of the receiving display station and with as little effort as possible on the part of the receiving user. To this end, the Internet browser programs through which these users access the Internet are provided with caching capabilities at the receiving display station.
At this point, in order to better understand the factors associated with browsers and caching, a brief review of the current Internet background should be helpful. The most commonly used method of accessing and distributing data over the Internet is through the Web environment. In the Web environment, servers and clients conduct Web transactions using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a common protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g. text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.), which may be included in Web documents. Information is formatted for transfer and presentation to a user by a standard page description language (Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)). Besides formatting, HTML allows developers to specify xe2x80x9chyperlinksxe2x80x9d to other Web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL defines a communication path to an Internet server containing information units known as Web pages. Web documents may be of any arbitrary size and may include text, graphics, media and computer programs. A Web document may include all files required to present the information requested by using the URL identifier. Retrieval from the Web is accomplished with the above-mentioned browser which is a HTML compatible application program for submitting requests for data through an URL submitted by the receiving or client display station. When such data is retrieved, the controlling Web browsers cache the documents or pages accessed at the receiving display station. Caching of pages permits the user to repeatedly view the information within a session without also repeatedly retrieving such information from the Web. The Web documents retrieved from the Internet are cached in the local memory at the receiving display station, usually in cache portions allocated in the local disk drive and in the local Random Access Memory (RAM). Most conventional Internet browsers have programming routines for evaluating incoming documents and allocating local disk drive storage and RAM for the document cache at the receiving display station. Such evaluations and allocations are based in part on the type and size of the files of data supporting the received documents. In addition, received files often contain control code indicative of cache size requirements which may be used by the browser to allocate disk drive storage and RAM portions for caching. However, all of these cache allocation procedures presuppose that the user, in setting up the browser, has set aside sufficient disk drive portions and RAM portions for such caches. For example, let us assume that the browser application using control information provided by an incoming Web page has determined that the document will require a cache having m megabytes of disk space and n megabytes of RAM. However, as it turns out, the user, in setting up the browser application, has set aside less that the n megabytes of RAM. The browser will attempt to load the document in the RAM cache, since there will be insufficient RAM cache available, the document will be loaded in the noncache portion of RAM.
Conventionally, many browser programs provide a customization option to specify the quantity of RAM and the quantity of disk drive storage that he wishes to set aside for cache. Since a major portion of Web users are relatively unsophisticated in computer arts, this presents difficulties to such users. Current Web browser programs have the user go through a sequence of xe2x80x9cadvanced optionsxe2x80x9d dialogs in order to try to adjust the cache size to meet the demands of received Web documents involving drop down menus and dialog boxes which tend to further clutter and confuse already full graphical user interfaces.
The present invention solves the cache size control problem by providing the user with a simplified graphical user interface displayed unit which can function, not only to provide the user with a simple means of viewing and changing cache sizes relative to received cached documents, but even further to enable the user to track a sequence of received documents or a sequence of other computer controlled events, e.g. event=any information accessed by the computer.
The present invention has implications beyond the tracking of received Web document caches. It is applicable to data processor controlled display systems with graphical user interfaces and provides means for tracking a sequence of data processor controlled events in combination with a displayed graphical unit including a sequence of nondescriptive markers corresponding to said sequence of events, and user interactive means for stepping sequentially through said sequence of markers. Means are provided for selecting one of said markers together with means responsive to these selecting means for displaying a description of the event represented by the marker. In this manner, the interface is not cluttered with descriptions or graphics for each event, e.g. Web document in the sequence but these descriptions may be pointed to and brought up as needed. In addition, the events themselves may be brought up and displayed as needed by such pointing means.
When applied to the caching of received Web documents, the invention provides a data processor controlled receiving display station for receiving Web documents including means for storing a sequence of received Web documents, means for tracking said sequence of stored Web documents in combination with a displayed graphical unit including: a sequence of nondescriptive markers corresponding to said sequence of stored Web documents and user interactive means for stepping sequentially through said sequence of markers.
For caching, the receiving display station has caching means of variable size and the graphical unit further includes interactive means for varying said cache size which includes a space for the sequence of markers, proportional in size to the size of said cache means, and the means for varying said cache size vary the size of the space for said sequence of markers.